The Making of a Dress: Step 4 - All Sewn Up

Who knew making a dress could be so fun? Okay, we did. The past three days, you've watched Mondo Guerra's winning Project Runway All Stars dress go from a pattern (opens in new tab) to a sample on a fit model (opens in new tab) to a garment that has been graded and cut for all sizes (opens in new tab). Now, we're movin' on to the next step in the production — and one you are probably most familiar with. Sewing!

Nanette Lepore's production development manager Chris Stoia is back to fill us in on this oh-so important stage of the process.

"Mondo's dress is a really great garment to see this next step because it shows the sections of the dress so distinctly," Stoia says. "The factory starts by opening bundles of cutwork. They sort it by size and make sure everything is there."

"They sew one piece together for our fit model, and we have another fitting to a make sure the factory sewing is consistent with our own fit," says Stoia. "We give comments on the sample and return it to the factory. We have quality control in the factories every day checking sewing and pressing and making sure that the garments are labeled properly with correct sizes."

"Only then do they proceed with bulk production," Stoia says.

The Making of a Dress Giveaway!

The silk dress is already sold out at nanettelepore.com (opens in new tab), for $298, but fear not! You can still get your hands on Mondo's dress — for free! — in our Twitter "The Making of a Dress" giveaway!

To enter to win, just follow @nanettelepore (opens in new tab) and @marieclaire (opens in new tab) on Twitter and send a tweet with the hashtag #MondosDress by Friday March 16 at 12 p.m. EST. The winner will be announced on Friday!

NEXT UP! Tomorrow, we'll discover what happens in "The Making of a Dress" Step 5: Finishing Touches.